Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Mark 14:50 is a pithy commentary on Jesus’ disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane: “And they all forsook Him, and fled.” This spare statement of fact fulfills Jesus’ prophecy, given only a short time before: “All ye shall be offended because of Me this night: for it is written, ‘I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered’” (Mark 14:27). Even though Jesus had told them exactly what would happen, the disciples are unprepared for these dizzying events. They failed to fully prepare by sleeping when Jesus had directed them to pray (Mark 14:32-41a); thus, they fail to stand with the Savior. Luke 18:1 establishes a crucial principle for all Christians: “And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint [give up].” All of us face challenging times. The only question is how we will deal with hard circumstances: will they weaken us or strengthen us? Without payer, we will “faint”; like the disciples who flee, we will be weaker spiritually. With prayer, though, we will become stronger in our faith. A reasonable response to these truths is to “pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17), to be ready to pray at any time and to lean upon prayer as a vital part of being a Christian.